In 1966 Peter Walker created a record called Rainy Day Raga, where he took the sound of the Eastern Ragas and translated them into the consciousness of the LSD generation, America. The record is still considered to be a classic of its genre, sited as a primary influence on the new psych/folk sounds of this now generation. Peter, like the great blues guitar pickers before him, disappeared from public and recorded life for decades, and yet practiced and studied all along. Spanish Guitar is the culmination of this past era, finding Peter starting up where he left off with Rainy Day Raga, tracing his beloved Indian sound to Spain, where the gypsies went to redefine Spanish music and create what is now known as Flamenco. This record is to Flamenco how Rainy Day Raga was to Raga….an inspired sound that combines all of Peter's studying with his Western lens to create a sound that is so signature, and so beautifully played, that it creates in itself a new genre. This is a sound you will not hear anywhere else…a sound that is transcendental…a sound that until now only belonged to the heavens.

Birdman Records is so very proud to be releasing the newest record from psych/folk pioneer Peter Walker, SPANISH GUITAR. Former Timothy Leary music guru, Walker recorded the quintessential RAINY DAY RAGA record for Vanguard Records in the 60s. Now he is back, exploring the next step of his musical history, which starts back many many moons ago when the raga-playing gypsies found themselves in Spain and created a musical culture that gave birth to Flamenco.

In many ways, SPANISH GUITAR is the natural follow-up to Walker’s legendary RAINY DAY RAGA record. It is the next step of musicality from a guitar virtuoso whose albatross has been telling world history through the acoustic sounds he has gravitated to. Whereas RAINY DAY RAGA transmuted the sounds and feelings of Raga-soaked India through the electricity of his guitar, SPANISH GUITAR does the same for the Flamenco/Raga hybrid. Recorded over a series of recent live shows, this CD finds Walker in top finger form, beautifully plucking out forms and feelings that create a world of supremely comfortable warmth.

Walker’s live shows are living history. Like those of Six Organs Of Admittance and Jack Rose, who both site Walker as a major influence, the music becomes almost a religious drug. SPANISH GUITAR captures that feeling perfectly: Peter Walker, medicine man that makes house calls.

FROM BEN CHASNEY (SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE) ON RAINY DAY RAGGA“Scanning the back cover, the words “raga guitar” and “Timothy Leary” stood out like rubrics in a hymnal; hinting at but not exactly explaining the genesis of the beauty in Walker’s technique: a playful pair of hands calmly annihilating the American Primitive and British Folk dichotomy. My entire understanding of Peter Walker’s music came from those liner notes and the personal switches he flipped in my own brain. No matter what I thought I knew about the man, however, nothing really explained how he could create a record so damn joyful from an acoustic guitar.”